This is Page 1 of 2 - the best of February 2008!
posted: February 29th, 2008

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This page begins with February 2nd at Jindai Botanical Graden without snow. Next is the 3rd at Jindai Botanical Garden - with snow. Then on the 9th we took a trip to Sawai and Mitake on the Upper-Tama River. Click on any thumbnail to begin.

Begin February 2nd

&nbsp On February 2nd Kazuya and I went to Jindai Botanical Garden - that's the one near our house. The first thing we found were some blossoming plum trees of various species and/or varieties. It was early for most of them, but there were a few out.

&nbsp We also found some Hamamelis spp. The first shot here shows the bud as it just starts to open - notice the way the flower petals seem to unroll from the bud - interesting. The 2nd shot is a yellow flowered variety and the 3rd shot is a red flowered variety.

&nbsp We lucked out and saw a Japanese Green Woodpecker (Picus awokera) and this bird just sat there pecking away for 10 or 15 minutes while we took pictures. I used my Optical Zoom PLUS Digital Zoom for these shots so you can notice some pretty severe chromatic aberration.

&nbsp It snowed most all night on February 2nd and most all day on the 3rd. We returned to Jindai Botanical Garden on the 3rd and took snow pictures. Here is one plum tree with snow on and around it. And here are those SAME 3 pine trees across the pond wearing their snow protection (Row 3, Picture 3).

&nbsp Here is the "Big Lawn" with the Pampas Grass - buried under a good solid 4 inches (10 cm) of snow - just happened to catch 2 crows flying over too. The 2nd shot is a plum blossom with snow on and around it.

&nbsp On February 9th we went out to Mitake and Sawai on the Upper Tama River. It was supposed to snow that day and we had wanted to stay in an Inn at the summit of Mt. Mitake and witness the snowstorm, but they were not accepting any reservations at all. So, we went out to Mitake and hiked along the Tama River and took pictures. It had snowed just the previous weekend too, so these photos show some snow in them.

&nbsp It is really quite rare to see snow along this area, in fact we were trying to remember if we had EVER seen snow out here and decided that we had not. So, it was pretty impressive for us to see snow on the shore of the Tama River.

&nbsp Here are some crazy kayakers (it was -4 degrees C), a very early Pussy Willow and the 3rd shot shows an older building and in this shot you can see that the snow has started. It actually started around 2:45 PM.

&nbsp In the first shot here you can see the snow falling. In the 2nd shot you can see a Hiyodori (Hypsipetes amaurotis) (Bulbul). In the final shot you see a Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus) - a bird which we rarely see. Pretty little guy isn't he!